The boys and girls of the Mozilla project have taken the wraps off the beta for Prism 1.0. Prism is a technology which blurs the boundaries between the web and the desktop, allowing you to approach web sites as if they were ordinary desktop applications. Prism is cross-platform, and runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

This beta release comes after lots of testing by not only the enthusiast community, but also by companies like Yahoo! Zimbra, DesignLinks International, and others. Based on this feedback, the team added new features and made some other improvements as well:

New API functionality for allowing Prism-enabled web sites more desktop like power.

Ability to set fonts, proxy settings and other application-speciﬁc settings.

The ability to clear private data on demand.

Applications are automatically updated when new Prism versions are available.

Tray icon support, as well as submenus for dock and system tray menus.

Full OS X 10.4 support, and further OS X specific enhancement.

Support for SSL exceptions.

Mozilla says that with the release of the Prism 1.0 beta, they are ready to start working with web developers to make websites take advantage of Prism-specific features. "With the release of Prism 1.0 beta we are ready to start fostering an ecosystem that makes it easier for developers to create and distribute compelling web app bundles." Mozilla's Matthew Gertner writes.